Drill of Position of Attention
by Ticklish Monster
Summary: This is Ryan's first year as Drum Major. Will he be able to make it the best year ever? With the help his four younger siblings in band and his crazy friends, that is just what Ryan plans on doing.
1. Rise and Shine!

_August 16th_

_6:07am_

_The O'Connell's_

Beep…beep…. beep….

"Damn alarm clock!" Ryan O'Connell groaned, sitting up in bed. "Somebody remind me again why I'm getting up this early when there is still a month of summer left…"

"Because you are a band dork," a voice came from the doorway. "And band dorks are dorky enough to sacrifice their own personal sleeping time to stand outside in the hot, blazing sun for a month, marching 'til their legs fall off. Yeah, I don't understand it, either."

"Ug…" Ryan groaned again, throwing his pillow at his younger brother, Isaac. "Go away. Let me sleep…"

"No can do," Isaac said happily. "You gave me orders last night to make sure you were up by 6:10 on the dot, and there is no way I'm going to defy my drum major's orders."

Ryan sat up and glared groggily. "Damn drum majors…. who'd want to be one of those? Pssh, not me! They have too much responsibilities and have to be there A WHOLE 30 MINUTES BEFORE THE REST OF THE BAND!"

"Sucks to be you, then, Mr. Drum Major, sir!" Isaac saluted his brother with a smile. "Up. Now."

Ryan groaned again, pulling his covers up over his head. "Leave me alone. Tell Mr. Blake I quit. Who cares if this looks good on college applications, and this is all I've been working for my whole high school career? Oh, why did I agree to do this?"

"Because you are a band dork," Isaac repeated. "Didn't I just go over this? And up. Now."

"No," came Ryan's orders from under the blankets. "Go away. Now. That's an order. In fact, that's my first official band camp week order. Ha. Take that. Leave. Out. Now. Go."

Isaac shrugged and left, flickering the lights on his way out. Ignoring his brother's moans of protest against the light, Isaac quietly knocked on the door next to his brother's room and slipped silently in.

_6:12_

_The Pahl's_

"Band Camp, band camp, band camp!!!!" Max Pahl cheered, stopping his dance to trip his younger sister with a crutch. "C'mon, Kristy, be more excited! This is _Band Camp! _It's only the most fun you will ever have!"

"Then why do you always start complaining about it on the second day?" Kristy retorted, poking her brother with her toe.

"Because that's what band camp is!" Max explained. "It's the worst time you will ever have in your life. You'll hate it; you'll deeply despise it. With a passion. A BIG passion. You'll constantly ask yourself why you are putting yourself through this hell."

"Why are we putting ourselves through this hell?"

"Because it's band camp!"

_6:17_

The Blake's 

Of course, Mark Blake had been up for hours. It was the first day of band camp, after all. He had spent the morning going over the score again, rehearing his "Welcome to Band!" speech, and memorizing the number of his Drum Major to give him the wake up call Blake knew he always so desperately needed.

In fact, as Blake checked his watch, he decided that it was time to give Mr. O'Connell a call. He prepared himself for the loud moaning and yawning that was sure to come.

_6:18:09_

The O'Connell's 

Ryan groaned to himself as a phone rang elsewhere in the house. As long as it wasn't for him, he didn't really care.

"Ryan! Phone!"

Damn.

"Tell whoever it is I jumped off a cliff," Ryan yelled back.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because that's what I'm going to do if you damn people keep waking me up!"

All was silent, so Ryan hoped that his other younger brother, Erik, had told whoever was on the phone he wasn't there.

"Ryan!"

Ryan threw a nearby shoe at the door, hitting his younger sister in the face as she opened the door.

"Good morning to you, too," Annie told her brother, throwing the shoe back at him. "Isaac told me that you are not getting up, and he bet me $5 that I can't get you up within 30 seconds."

"Good luck with that," Ryan grumbled. "I'm not moving. Nope. Never."

Annie just grinned. "I had hoped you would say that." She reached into her back pocket and took out a small silver thing. "I've been practicing the upper registers of my piccolo. Do you want to hear them?" She put the instrument up to her lips.

Ryan groaned. "Fine. I'm up. Go tell Isaac he owes you $5."

"Thanks, Ry!" Annie skipped out of the room, smirking Isaac, who was leaning against the door. He handed her a green bill with a glare not unlike his older brother's.

_6:21_

The Tiel's 

Amy Tiel was too busy debating whether to chuck her alarm clock out the window that she hadn't noticed her little elementary school brother, Timmy, taking the shoelaces out of her DrillMaster's. He sneaked away while Amy was still gazing out the window.

"I hate band," she announced to herself. "Seriously. I hate all the little new freshmen snots already. And I hate being a section leader. I don't want to have to deal with the little bugs' whining and complaining. Hell, I don't want to deal with the upperclassmen's whining and complaining."

"And I don't want do deal with your whining and complaining," Timmy told her.

Amy just glared and rolled out of bed, pulling on her shorts and tank top. She had slipped into both shoes before grumbling, "Hey! Who took my shoelaces?"

_6:23_

_The Blake's_

Mark Blake smiled into the phone. He had just hung up with Ryan O'Connell's brothers, Jake and Erik. Jake had promised to do whatever humanly possible to wake up his brother. Blake was confident in all the younger O'Connell's abilities. In fact, he was going to rely on them all season long to keep his drum major in check.

_6:25_

The Pahl's 

"When do we have to be there?" Kristy asked her brother. "I'm nervous."

"I have to be there at 7:15, you have to be there at 7:30," Max informed her. "One of the oh-so-high perks of being a section leader. We get to get there before the rest of you regular people. Except for you, Kris. You get to get there early with me! Isn't that great?"

"Fantastic," Kristy grumbled. "Hey, can we leave early to stop and get some coffee?"

Max shrugged. "Sure. But why are you addicted to that stuff? It's a nasty habit, and it'll stunt your growth."

Kristy laughed at him. "Max, I'm 5'. I think my growth has been stunted far before my love for coffee kicked in."

"True, true," Max agreed, grabbing his crutches off the ground and standing up. "I, on the other hand, am tall. So ha."

"Loser," Kristy told him.

"Do you want me to bring you to go get coffee?"

"I'll shut up," Kristy promised, holding the door open for her brother as he crutched himself down to his car.

"Good," Max smiled, getting himself into the car and checking the mirrors, ignoring the handicapped sign hanging on the rearview mirror.

_6:30_

_The O'Connell's_

"I hope you all are happy," Ryan said, pacing in front of the couch holding all four of his younger siblings. "You just successfully managed to piss off your Drum Major. I won't be forgetting this at practice today."

"Sure," Annie teased him. "You can't even remember your own siblings' names. How are you going to remember something that happened when you were still asleep?"

"Hey! I know you guys," Ryan protested.

"Who am I?" Erik asked him with a smile.

Ryan looked from Erik to his identical brother, Isaac. Erik was wearing Isaac's trademark beat up old hat, and Isaac was decked out in Erik's standard khaki shorts. "That's easy," he informed Erik. "You're Isaac."

"Wrong!" Jake chimed in. "Good job. You can't even tell them apart. And you call yourself an older brother." He shook his head in pity.

"You, shush," Ryan ordered. "You are just a lowly freshmen. As for you two," he said, turning to Isaac and Erik, "Aren't you two a little old to be playing the switching identities trick? You guys are sophomores."

"But it gets you every time! How could we resist?" Erik grinned, handing his twin his hat.

"Ha ha, real funny," Ryan said, rolling his eyes. "Real nice. But, seriously, guys. Please don't make this season hard on me. This is my first year as a Drum Major, and I don't want my four little siblings ruining it for me. Please. Now, you have a little less then half an hour to get ready, because you are all getting there early with me. Now, go."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Drum Major, sir!" Annie saluted, with Jake following suit.

Ryan glared. "Siblings…"


	2. Introductions

_6:45_

_Park View High School's Band Room's Office_

Mark Blake opened the door to his office and breathed in the aroma. "Man, I missed that smell," he said to himself. "What else could be better then pencils, cork grease, valve oil, stale spit, and the normal odors that go along with high school students?"

He sat at his desk and leaned back in the chair, checking the Circle of Fifths clock that hung on the wall next to the various Drumline drumheads. "They should be arriving soon," he smiled. "I give them…20 minutes."

_7:04:57_

_Park View's High School's Band Parking Lot_

"Out! Now!" Ryan ordered his siblings, trying to throw Erik out the back. "I was supposed to be here five minutes ago, but thanks to you guys, I'm late!"

He glared at them before turning to Annie. "Get them all out and just…go hang around somewhere. Just don't be late for the 7:30 practice." He sprinted off into the building, leaving four amused looking people.

"Why do we put up with him?" Isaac asked, standing next to his sister.

"Because it's so funny to watch him when he's riled up like that," Jake answered.

"Oh yeah. _That's_ why."

_6:18_

PVHS's Band Room 

Ryan peeked out of the office, noting the various people semi assembled in the room.

"I think they're here," he informed Blake as he pulled his head back into the room.

"Are you ready to start?" Blake asked the teen. "This is your first day as Drum Major. These section leaders will look to you to help lead the younger students. You are responsible for everybody in band. Are you up to this?"

Ryan merely blinked. "Do you _want _me to bolt out the open door while I still can?"

Blake just laughed. "You'll be fine. Now, scoot!"

Ryan glared. He had gotten very good at that that morning. Opening the door, he tried to enter the band room as discreetly as he could, but of course that didn't work. It wouldn't have been any fun if it had.

"Ryan!" Everybody in the room sang out.

"Hi," he waved sheepishly before lowering his voice. "Blake is watching my every move right now, so could you all pretend to be utterly focused while I give what seems to be a very exciting and highly motivating pre-band pep talk?"

The various section leaders laughed and assembled on the ground around the podium. Amy Tiel and Max Pahl were the closest to Ryan, sitting on the ground and looking up at him eagerly.

Ryan saw this and laughed. "Howdy, guys! But, focusing here…Speech. Um…pep talk? Pep…pep…. pep?" He looked up at the group of people hopefully. "Ok, maybe not. Ok, being serious. Guys, you have all been in band for all of high school, whether that be the three years for most of you, or the two years for you juniors. You know band. You know what it takes, and you know what to expect during the season. The new freshmen don't. They know nothing. Unless they are lucky enough to be siblings of some of you guys, they know squat. So it's up to you guys to teach them everything. Sure, they'll need to know about marching and all the actual marching band stuff, but you have to teach them everything else. Like, tell them what fun they'll have here. Answer all their questions about high school. Be their friends. Be their teachers. Be their masters; whip them into shape if they get out hand. It's all up to you guys."

He bowed, hopping off the podium. "And that's my speech. Woo. Got that over with. So, who's ready for the last 10 minutes free of annoying little freshmen?"

A round of cheers came up from the section leaders, and Ryan beamed.

_6:32_

PVHS's Band Room 

Ryan, his siblings, Amy, Max and Kristy leaned against the wall near the office. People were swarming the band room. The upperclassmen that had been in band before were trying to avoid actually entering the room, knowing that once you entered you could never leave, and the freshmen were doing a bunch of crazy things.

Those that had friends in band were all bunched into bad looking circles, catching up on the latest news in each other's lives. Those that knew nobody were standing in corners and next to walls, trying to avoid looking at people.

Ryan poked Jake, and Max poked Kristy.

"You have to go out there soon," Ryan told his brother.

"Better make it sooner then later," Max informed Kristy.

Jake and Kristy looked at each other, and out at the mess of freshmen.

"Ready?" he asked Kristy.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she replied.

"Wish us luck!" Jake told his siblings and Max. "We're going in."

"Good luck!" the foresaid chorused.

Jake and Kristy took one last look at their respected siblings before stepping away from the wall and immediately getting swarmed into the mob.

"Our little Jakey-wakey," Isaac said sadly.

"All grown up and at his first day of band camp," Erik continued.

"Hold me, dear brother, for I think I feel a tear coming on," Isaac said dramatically. Erik obediently stepped into his twin's outstretched arms, giving a fake sob as he did so.

Annie looked at Ryan, to Isaac, back to Ryan, over to Erik, to herself and nodded. Ryan nodded back. Putting a hand near Isaac's back and waiting for Ryan to do the same to Erik, she quietly counted up.

On three, the two older teens pushed the twins into the crowd. Erik and Isaac had time only for a small moan before getting swallowed up. They tried to fight their way back through the mess of people, but within seconds the people left on the wall couldn't see them anymore.

"That was harsh," Amy told them with a chuckle.

"It was the tweebs," Ryan reminded her.

Amy nodded. "Good point."

_7:35_

_The Wall Closest to the PVHS's Band Room's Office_

"Do you think I should start now?" Ryan asked the people standing around him. "I was supposed to have started five minutes ago."

"Yeah," Max agreed. "Best to get it over with."

"Good luck!" Amy and Annie told him. "You'll need it."

Ryan glared at them before hopping off the wall. "Move aside, move aside," he told the little freshmen milling about. "Drum Major coming through. Move, move. Yes, that means you. Out of my way, coming through, move it…"

A few minutes later, Ryan finally reached the podium on the other side of the room. With a final look at band room from his view from the ground for the last time, Ryan stepped up onto the high a foot high platform.

Instantly, the band room got noticeably quiet. The upperclassmen stopped their conversations and looked up at Ryan, while the freshmen just continued jabbering. After a minute, the few somewhat intelligent freshmen noticed that everybody else was glaring at them, and poked their talking neighbors.

Finally, all was quiet.

Enjoying the silence while he could, Ryan just looked out over the band, and they looked back at him. This went on for a while; the band just staring at their Drum Major, and him just staring at his band. Somebody coughed and was quickly poked.

"Ha, you blinked!" Ryan finally cheered. "Ok, now, on to band business. Ok…first things first. Freshmen – wow. First rule of band: When a director or somebody more important then you is on the podium, you don't talk, and you pay attention to whoever is up here. You guys are just lowly freshmen. You mean nothing to the band. People will not take you seriously if you get up here to say something. Only Blake, the section leaders, and I can. Got that?"

The little freshmen nodded, their eyes suddenly filled with fear.

"Wow," Ryan continued. "I can't believe the first thing I said to you guys was a rule. Wow. Sorry 'bout that. Band really isn't about rules. It's about making music and having fun. Oh, and you guys can sit. I'm going to be up here for a while, and you need your energy for marching. So, sit, sit! The floor isn't dirty yet. This is the only day until next year's first day of band camp that it is safe to sit on the floor."

Everybody obediently sat.

"Good," Ryan nodded. "Moving on…oh! Hi, I'm Ryan O'Connell, your Drum Major. Our band is small enough so we only need me. Most bands have two and an assistant. But you guys are lucky; you are always stuck with me! Isn't that great? Yeah, ok, maybe not…but, anywho…I, along with Mr. Blake and your sections leaders are the leader people. Listen to us. We know more then you do. If you have a question, ask. Better to look stupid by asking then to be proven stupid by doing something wrong."

"Amen!" the sections leaders called out.

"That's our band's motto," Ryan informed everybody. "Ok, next. I'm not going to introduce all the sections leaders, because frankly, I'm too damn lazy to. And besides, you'll meet all of them within the next few days. The SLs always sick of their sections within the first five minutes, so with all the switching of the sections that they do, you'll get to know each SL very well."

"Amy…" all the sections leaders except for Amy muttered.

"Hey!" Amy defended herself. "You try being stuck with the Guard, and see how long you can deal with them! I think I broke my record last year by 8 hours and 16 minutes."

"Yeah," Ryan agreed. "Guard girls…man, that sucks for you. Good luck with that."

A few freshmen girls looked around at each other and groaned.

"So, yeah, I'm sure you'll meet everybody soon enough," Ryan said. "But there are a few minor people who are deemed important enough to get to be introduced by yours truly and stand on the podium next to me. First off is our amazing music librarian, Ms. Mia Garver!"

Everybody clapped and a few upperclassmen cheered as a preppy looking junior stood up to join Ryan up front.

"Mia is in charge of all music and forms and stuff," Ryan said, explaining her job. "So tomorrow, when you all get your music, be sure to thank Mia for all the hard work she put in in making sure there was enough parts and stuff for everybody."

"Thank you, Mia," Mia's friends call out as she waved and sat back down.

"The next person is the first person to ever have this job, since it's the first year we've had somebody that thought it was needed…so, everybody give a big round of applause to Robby Molten, our band's first official Marching Band Photographer!"

A junior with long, shaggy brown hair lazily stood up and waved, a high tech camera on a strap around his neck.

"Robby will be going around all season taking pictures of everything and everybody, so just remember: You are never alone. There is somebody always watching…so no more picking your nose when you think nobody is looking! I made Robby promise to get as many shots of pickers as possible."

A bright flashed temporarily blinded everybody in the room, causing the majority of the people to jump.

"Just kidding," Robby said with a cheeky grin, ducking all the small bits of paper being chucked at him.

"Darn you, Mr. Word-I'm-not-allowed-to-use-on-school-property-and-in-the-presence-of-little-naïve-freshmen," Ryan glared. "But anyways, the only other person there is is Mr. Blake, but he said that he's busy right now, and that we should start without him…so, you are all going to break into your sections right now before we start marching. This way you can get to know each other and ask any last minute questions about band before we get started. So, SLs, get up and come here."

The various sections leaders and captions slowly gathered around Ryan up front.

"Flutes, go with Tiffany, Alto / tenor sax / horns, with Tony, Drumline, minus pit, who stays here with Max, go with Kyle…" Ryan listed off the various sections until the band room was empty except for the few pit people.

"Good luck," Ryan said to the freshmen pit before disappearing into Blake's office. "You'll need it."


	3. The Sectionals

_7:40_

The Chorus Room in PVHS, a.k.a. the Alto / Tenor sax / Mellophone sectional room during summer marching band camp

"Are we there yet?" Steven, a freshmen tenor sax player, complained after the section had gone two feet away from the band room.

"No," mellophone section leader, Tony, glared. "We aren't. So shush. We have…what, another two feet to go? Do you think you can manage that?"

Steven glared back, falling back to walk with some of his other little freshmen buddies, grumbling softly under his breath to his friends, one of whom was Erik, who just poked him.

"I hate those freshmen that think they know everything, or complain about every little thing," Tony said loudly to the alto sax section leader, Eddie Watts, who just went by Watts.

"I heard that," Steven informed Tony.

"That was the point!" Tony shot back before turning to Watts and sighing a loud exasperated sigh.

"You'd better shut up," Watts said over his shoulder, "or we can make you run cymbal laps."

"What the hell is a cymbal lap?"

_7:41_

PVHS's Auditorium on the stage, which was home to Battery Drumline during marching season

"A cymbal lap," Drumline section leader, Kyle, informed the rest of the line, "is a method of torture that some Drumline section leader from decades back thought of, and it's been used ever since by Drumline SLs who are fed up with their section."

The Drumline were currently sitting in a circle on the stage, their drums and harnesses in a big pile behind them. Kyle was the only one standing up, his hands behind his back as he talked and walked.

"Everybody in this 'Line is guaranteed to do it at least twice. There is just no avoiding it. Eventually you are going to piss me off, and then it's off running with you. And trust me - you will piss me off eventually."

All the upperclassmen's eyes automatically traveled to Trevor, a junior quads player, who twiddled his thumbs innocently.

"Or, if you are like Trevor over here," Kyle continued, "you'll be running one every practice. Now, what is a cymbal lap, exactly? Like I said, it's an ancient method of torture for the Drumline. Basically, it consists of you taking your drum and running how ever many laps the SL deems worthy. It normally depends on your instrument and what you did to piss me off. Cymbal players normally have to run more, since their instruments are lighter."

"I have a question," ever-quiet Jake said, raising his hand. "Why is it called a cymbal lap if the whole 'Line runs it?"

"Shouldn't you know this?" Kyle asked, "Seeing as how your brother is the DM…but, meh, he's not in Drumline, so I wouldn't expect him to know. It started as being just a thing that the cymbals had to do, to make up for their instruments being so light while the drummers' had such heavy things to carry. The section leader that first thought of this as a way to make the cymbal players feel even a little ounce of the pain that us drummers have to go through. Since then, various SLs have started using it as a form of punishment, which brings us to today, where the other sections have started copying us and making their people run laps with their instruments as punishment. But the idea for it rests solely with us – but whether that is good or bad, I'll let you decide."

"I decide it's bad," Trevor voted.

"No shit," Kyle retorted.

"Kyle!" one of the only female battery drummers, Jessie, scolded him. "There are young and impressionable freshmen here. Don't hurt their innocent ears with such foul language."

"Oh. Right. Sorry," Kyle apologized, looking straight at Jake, who leaned back and groaned.

"Why must you do that?" he questioned from his position on the floor. "Is it because I happen to be brother to the drum major? Do you think that I'll go crying to Ry because you happened to curse? Well, guess what – so does he. You know him, and his mouth, and you know Annie and hers, and you know the tweebs and their – ok, bad example there, but still. You know my siblings, you don't have to protect me, because I've heard worse from the Drum Major himself."

For most of the people in the line, – the upperclassmen who had known Jake for a few years by all the times he was forced to go to band things to see his older siblings – that was the most they had ever heard Jake O'Connell talk. Half of them had believed Annie when she tried to tell them that it was impossible for Jake to make any noise.

"Wow," Trevor breathed. "Dude. You can talk."

"Dude. Yeah," Jake nodded.

Kyle stared at Jake in awe for a few seconds before getting poked by Jessie.

"Right," he said, moving around right now. "Back to Drumline. We are the cool part of the line. The other people, the pit, are – "

_7:42_

_PVHS's Band Room, which during the day while the marchers marched, the Pit took over and claimed as their own_

" - Are the lazy, sad excuse for Marching Banders," Max Pahl informed the Pit.

The other four people in Pit were sprawled out across the room. One person was curled up under the tympanis, some soft snoring echoing out; another was sitting in the tall rack of chairs, while the other two were sitting against the wall, facing Max.

"Aww, Max, you can't mean that," the boy sitting on top of the chairs protested. "You always say that we are the best section ever."

"Because we are," Max agreed. "And c'mon, Charlie, get off of those, I don't want to have to explain to Blake why we lost our best mallet player because he fell off a chair."

Charlie jumped down, joining the two people against the wall. "So why did you just say we are pointless?"

"Because we are," Max repeated. "I was just about to get into that. I had this whole speech written up, which I guess now would be a good time to do – and of course, Logan is asleep for it. Somebody go wake him up."

The boy against the wall jumped up and ran over to Logan, blowing on his face and stepping on his stomach until he rolled over and protested.

"Up," the boy ordered to the groggy Logan, who groaned and sat up, joining everybody against the wall.

"I said wake him up, Sean, not kill him," Max said amusedly. "But now that we are all here and awake, I think it's time for the first official Circ-Sec of the year."

Lily, the only freshmen and the only female of the group, raised her hair slowly. "What's a Circ-Sec?" she asked hesitantly.

Max grinned at her. "That's my favorite question of all time."

Logan groaned. "Aww, no…now he's going to get started on his whole Circ-Sec speech."

"I can even recite it!" Sean announced. " 'The Circ-Sec is my own little invention I made when I became Pit SL. It stands for Circle-Sectional, which was too long to say so I shortened it. I wanted a chance for everybody in pit to have their own little bonding time, since we are around each other so much.' "

" 'So, the Circ-Sec was invented,' " Charlie took over. " 'The CS is basically the Pities sitting around in a circle on the dirty, cold hard gym floor, 'bonding.' Or, as the case normally is, trying to pass the time.' "

" 'The Circ-Sec is used to have discussions about band if we need them, like, about the music or marching band in general,' " Logan continued. " ' Or, it can be used to talk about anything during the long hours the Pit is stuck inside the band room. It's also a good time to eat the candy that somebody normally brings. ' "

"Yep, that's a Circ-Sec," Max nodded to Lily. "Basically, the Pit is stuck inside most of band camp while the marchers are outside marching, so we tend to get bored pretty fast. And being us being guys, we needed a way to entertain ourselves, so the CS was made. We just sit around talk or do whatever, but whenever the rest of the band comes it, it looks like we are doing something productive. Got it?"

Lily nodded.

"Good," Max decided. "Ok, first Circ-Sec of the year, so everybody, to the middle!"

All five of them trampled over to the middle of the band room floor, where all the backpacks and whatnot was quickly thrown to the sides of the room, and a circle formed by the Pit.

"Welcome," Max said seriously, "to Band. Woo! Ok, got that out. Now, obviously, we have a new person with us this year, so I think we should all go around and say our names, grades, why we are in pit, and…favorite ice cream flavor."

Coughs of "Loser!" could be heard from Charlie and Sean's side of the circle, with Logan sitting innocently nearby.

"Ha, ha," Max told them. "Charles. Why don't you start?"

Charlie glared at Max before clearing his throat. "I'm Charlie, I'm a senior, I'm in pit because my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Mr. Maxwell, is in pit and I couldn't bear to be separated from him. No, actually, I'm a kickass mallet player, and you can't play the mallets in Battery, so I decided my skills were best used here. Oh, and um…Mint chocolate chip. The green kind, though. Not the fake white mint ice-cream stuff."

"So I guess I'm next?" Sean asked. "Ok. Yo. I'm Sean, I'm a sophomore, I'm in pit because…well, I'm lazy, and didn't want to learn a whole new instrument, since I play the bassoon. And the whole 'marching for a ridicules number of hours during the day' thing didn't really sit well with me, so I decided pit was a better option. Chocolate chip cookie dough."

"Logan. You're up," Max told the other boy.

"No!" he protested. "You're next."

"We're skipping me for the time being," Max said. "Now go."

Logan was saved from going by the band room's double doors opening and Ryan sticking his head in.

"Ooh, the famous Pit Circ-Sec?" he asked. "Rock on. Max, I've been sent to tell you that the rest of the band is coming in soon, since Blake is ready for his speech, and that all the stuff you moved has to go back where you found it, and you can finish your circle later. Isn't is strange how well Blake knows you by now?"

"Scary," Max agreed, getting helped up by Charlie. "Ok, send them in."

((A/N: I'm in pit in my marching band, since I have bad knees, and at the start of the season, I was still recovering from major reconstructive knee surgery. I play the tenor sax in concert season, (But I'm switching to French Horn soon), so I'm sorry for focusing so much on the pit. That's going to be happening a lot in this story, just because I don't know a lot about the other aspects of marching band, since I don't march. But I think you'll find the Pit interesting enough…I know that my pit is, which I'm sort of basing this pit off of. Oh, but the Circ-Sec I made up five minutes ago. I like the idea of it, however…I think I'm going to use it when I'm pit SL in a few years.))

((Oh, and don't get used to everyday updates like this…normally, I updated about once every week or so, whenever I have time to sit down and write. I shouldn't even be writing now, I should be studying for a History midterm I have tomorrow…))


	4. The Speech & Bob

_7:55_

_PVHS's Band Room_

"That took way too long," Ryan whispered to Blake, who was standing next to him against the whiteboard in the front of the room.

After waiting for the Pit to put all the backpacks and stuff back in their original spots and having the rest of the band come trooping in, Blake decided they had a major problem. It had become quite apparent within the first two minutes that some sections just didn't work well sitting next to each other.

Ryan had told the section leaders to make sure their sections sat together, just to get more "section bonding time" in, but he hadn't said anything about where each section sat. So, of course some sections immediately paired up. The piccolo and color guard girls were the first sections to sit near each other, which Ryan quickly separated after the first few seconds of girly high-pitched laughter.

Trumpets and trombones couldn't sit near each other due to some ancient rivalry that had never been solved, and the saxes / mellophones couldn't sit near the tubas, since Erik and Isaac always had to be at least 15 feet away from each other for anything to ever get done. Clarinets and alto saxes didn't work well together, and Drumline and Pit had a bad habit of chucking mallets at each other, so they were on different sides of the room under the strict eye of Blake.

"It's like solving a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle when you are missing the last piece," Ryan complained to Blake after ordering everybody to be quiet. "No matter what you due to find it, it's just lost, so all of your hard work is for nothing."

Blake nodded. "Ok, Band, listen up. For the sake of what is left of your Drum Major's sanity, please be quiet. We don't want him to go crazy on the first day, because then we'll have nothing to look forward to for the rest of the season. Oh, and until he or I says otherwise, the spots you are sitting in now are your permanent seats. Well, the general area that you are sitting in. Does that make any sense?"

"No," Ryan answered, stepping up onto the podium, stopping all the chatter that was happening within sections. "But don't worry, Blake. We love you anyways."

"We do until you tell us 'One more time!' for the first time," mellophone section leader, Tony, corrected Ryan. "Then we hate you."

"I'll keep that in mind," Blake told the senior, gesturing for Ryan to get off the podium. Standing up on it, the chattering that had gone on for the half second that no director had been on the podium stopped. "You'll learn to hate the phrase 'One more time!'" he told the freshmen. "But you have about an hour before you have to deal with that, judging by my clock, which is always right!" he added, glaring at a few upperclassmen.

"But, anyways, welcome to Band. I am Mark Blake, your director for marching band and during concert season, so you're stuck with me all year." Blake dodged a mallet thrown at him by Kyle. Ryan eagerly picked up and went over to where the section leader was sitting, hitting him on the head with the mallet before once again taking his spot behind the podium. "You'll also learn to know to never throw stuff at the person on the podium, because Ryan has some strange obsession with hitting people with stuff, as I'm sure his siblings can concur for."

Annie, Isaac, Erik, and Jake all nodded, grinning when their brother just glared at them mouthing "I'll get you tonight!"

"Focus," Blake instructed the Drum Major. "Ok, let's all focus…everybody ready? Good. Ok. You will never have another experience like marching band. Nowhere else will you be able to call 50 other people family, and in no other sport or club or anything at this school can you spend so much time with the same people. In band, you will get to know everybody else more then they probably want you too. You'll see everybody when they are at their worse, and more then likely, you'll help somebody over their problems. You'll also see everybody at their best, and I can guarantee you that band is the one club or sport or anything at this school that gives out the most hugs and kisses to everybody without them meaning anything. That's what band is. We're a family. We will spend so much time around each other, you'll probably get sick of everybody soon. You will sit on a bus for two hours with everybody, but for you freshmen, you'll automatically get to be friends with a lot of seniors. For the girls, you'll get a lot of protective older brothers, so warn anybody you may like to look out for them. But chances are, you'll like a band guy. That's the way it works in band. Band has more interclub relationships then anything else. I mean, look at Charlie and Tiffany, who have been together since their freshmen year, and wow, isn't it kind of sad that I know that? See, what did I tell you – in band, you get to know things about other people."

The whole band turned to look at either the pit person Charlie or the flute section leader Tiffany, who both blushed.

"There will be times when you love band, and times when you hate it. There will be times when you love your section leaders, and times that you hate them, and section leaders, there will be times when you love your section, and times when you hate them. But from the second you entered that door this morning, you were, and will always be, a Band Dork. There is no getting around it now, so wear your title with pride. So, that was my speech, and now it's over, so I'll hand the podium back over to Ryan, who will explain what you are going to be doing for the next hour or so. Ryan?"

Ryan eagerly stepped up onto the podium again. "Ok, so, basically, Blake and I are way too lazy to go outside and make you all march around in circles for a few hours, because his coffee hasn't kicked in yet, and I'm just always too lazy. So, you guys have about another hour to bond and goof off and do the first official section swap of the day – though keep in mind, I want to be apart of it, too, so…let's say…in like, 23.67 minutes, come back here and we'll all switch? Does that work for all of you?"

The section leaders all looked at each other and quickly conferred with the ones near them before nodded back to Ryan.

"Ok, good. Now, until then, go bond and stuff! Welcome to your last free hour of your summer. Muhahahahaha!" Ryan started cackling like a madman. This went on for a few minutes, until Isaac and Erik had the sense to run up to their older brother and slap him across the cheek, bringing him back to reality.

"Thanks, guys, I needed that," he told them, so they slapped him again. And again. And again. And again. "Ahh! Stop!" he commanded the twins. "Two demits each for attacking your drum major and brother! And you're grounded!"

Satisfied with their work, the twins highfived each other and returned to their sections on opposite sides of the room.

"Ok, now that it's been decided again that Isaac and Erik can never be within two feet of each other, why are you all still sitting around?" Ryan demanded. "Go bond!"

_7:56_

_Classroom #144 where the piccolo section have their sectionals_

The freshmen girls in the piccolo section spent their 23.67 minutes drilling Tiffany about her relationship with Charlie. They had already bonded, since all they really needed to was to giggle together once before becoming friends, so Tiffany wasn't really worried that they weren't doing anything. She was flattered by their questions, and eagerly answered them.

"Are you two going to get married once you graduate?" Katie, a freshmen, asked.

"That's the plan," Tiffany answered with a smile. "Charlie wants to get into the Air Force Academy when he graduates, or go right into the Air Force if he doesn't get accepted, so who knows where we will end up? But he told me he wants to, and that's all that I really need right now."

_8:00_

_PVHS's Band Room in the Second Official Pit Circ-Syc_

"So, how embarrassed are you right now?" Max asked his best friend. "I mean, having Blake announce to the whole band like that and stuff."

Charlie shrugged. "Not very. I mean, I asked her out for the first time in the band room with the whole band watching, and that was even worse then Blake telling everybody."

"True," Max agreed. "But enough talk about you and Tiff, even though I know that that is your favorite subject either."

"Haha."

"Where were we with introductions?" Max asked, ignoring Charlie. "Right. Logan. Go."

Logan made a face and sat up from his previous lying down position. "Ok. I'm Logan, I'm a junior, and I'm in band because last year the principal made me join it, saying that I needed another outlet to "express my anger with" other then drugs and drinking and all that other jazz. I've cleaned myself up since then, but I somehow realized in the middle of marching season last year that the best friends an ex-druggie could have are in bandos, so I just couldn't not come back this year."

"Ice cream?" Max reminded him.

"Rocky Road all the way!"

"So that brings us to you, Ms. Lily," Max told the girl with a grin

She smiled at him shyly back. "I'm Lily," she said softly. "I'm a freshmen, and I'm in pit because I play the oboe - "

"Rock on double reeds!" Sean cheered.

"And I didn't want to learn a different instrument or be in Guard or anything, and my favorite…cookies and cream."

"Do you have any siblings?" Charlie asked randomly.

Lily shook her head. "I'm an only child. Why?"

Charlie looked over at Max with an eyebrow raised.

"I can't," Max told his friend. "I have too many this year, and I can't take on another one on top of all that I have to do this year. Besides, you don't have any, and you'd make a good one!"

"Does anybody want to tell me what is going on?" Sean wondered.

"Nope," Max answered.

Charlie turned to Lily, who was looking at him and Max with a quizzical expression on her face. "You heard Blake's speech, right?" he asked her. "So, you heard him say that band is like a family. Well, every year, the upperclassmen guys always 'adopt' younger girls to be their sisters, just to watch over and stuff. We make sure that guys treat you with respect, and we basically act like your older brothers, except without the fighting and stuff that biological brothers come with. Max has a lot of younger sisters, along with his real sister, so he can't take any more. I, on the other hand, am an only child, just like you, and I don't have any band younger sisters. So, how would you like it if I became your 'brother'?"

"I'd like that," Lily answered with a blush.

"Aww, how cute!" Max grinned. "Hate to break up this newly formed family, but it's time for a field trip!"

"Why?" Sean asked.

"Because it's my turn to introduce myself, and we need go outside to do that."

"For the cart?" Logan asked.

"For the cart!" Max confirmed. "Up. Everybody, up! Follow me!"

Max led the way across the band room and out the door on the other side of the room and out into the parking lot. In the slot closest to the door, an old golf cart was parked. The sides were covered with signatures, writings and pictures.

Max gazed down at it fondly. "This is Bob," he told Lily. "I'd have nothing without him. But c'mon, everybody in!" Max quickly crutched over to the cart and pulled himself into the drivers seat, handing his crutches to Charlie, who stuck them in the back seat before climbing in after Max. Sean and Logan quickly scrambled into the back seat, leaving Lily outside, looking lost, so Logan jumped out and gestured to Lily to sit in the middle of him and Sean.

Max pulled out a key from his pocket and started the cart, pulling it out of the parking space. "Story time, story time!" Charlie cheered.

"Hush, or you won't get to hear it!" Max ordered. "Thanks. Ok, story time, story time! Ok, so, Lily, you've probably noticed by now that I'm on crutches. Am I right?"

In the backseat, Lily nodded. Max was driving, so he couldn't see this, but plowed on with his story anyways. "There is a good reason for that. When I was 13 and in the 8th grade, I noticed this lump in my knee, and went to the doctors, blah blah blah…To make a long story short, the doctors told me that I had a malignant tumor in my right knee, and to save my life I'd had to lose my leg. So I had my leg amputated, was on chemo for a few months, and have been in remission ever since. If I don't relapse in the next year, they'll pronounce me cured. But once my leg was removed, I had to option of getting a prosthetic or not, but after having one for a few months, I choose not to keep it. Do you know how itchy those things are? So, now I just use crutches with my one leg. But that proved to be a hard thing to have for marching band, since Pit is responsible for getting all of their equipment to and from the field every practice, and crutching over there was had. Hence, Bob. We load him full of stuff and I drive it over there, occasionally let somebody else in the cart for a ride. Normally, we draw straws every day, and short one gets to ride for that practice. At competitions, they have their own golf cart driving people that I just hitch a ride with. Oh, and in case it isn't obvious, that's why I'm in Pit. I play French horn during concert season, and my favorite ice cream is pistachio."

"Good story," Charlie told him. "But aren't you forgetting something?"

"Am I?" Max asked. "No, I don't think so…am I?"

"23.67 minutes!" Logan reminded him. "You're missing it."

"Section swap!" Max gasped. "Ok, everybody, hold on tight!" With that, he quickly drove back around the parking lot into Bob's parking space, crutching up to the door as quickly as his one leg would allow him.

((We sort of have the brothers thing at my band. It's not official, but most of the senior and some junior guys always look out for us freshmen girls. It's quite fun, to have a bunch of older brothers to protect you, though they do take the protection thing a bit overboard at times…))


	5. 2367, Water Duty, and a Toast

_8:32_

_PVHS's Band Room for the First Official Section Swap_

Ryan looked down at the band from his place on the podium. The section leaders were all standing behind him, leaving only the lowerclassmen sitting on the floor.

"This is not the way we normally do this," Ryan said. "Normally, section swaps happen at least twice every day. Sometimes they happen when one SL gets sick of their section and just trades with another, and sometimes all the sections switch. You'll never know when you'll have different section leaders, so take care not to piss any of them off. That being said, who should go with whom…hmm. Ok, saxes and mellophones, up!"

The three instruments stood up, looking at the section leaders before them.

"You guys can go with Lisa, so clarinets, obviously you won't have your normal SL. You guys can go with…Kyle. Kyle and Lisa, bring them to the spots that they normally go, so make sure you have the right spot. We don't want a section pile up in some of the rooms. And make sure you are back here in about half an hour."

Kyle and Lisa nodded and quickly conferred with the rest of the SLs before taking their new sections out of the room.

"Low Brass…hmm. Ooh, I think I'll be mean and put you with Hannah." Ryan grinned back to the trumpet section leader, who glared. "Who knows, Han? Maybe you and the low brass can work out your differences. Ok, so, trombones, tubas, euphoniums, go with Hannah. Trumpets…go with Tony and Watts. You guys are lucky, you get two SLs."

The low brass followed Hannah, who was still wearing a scowl, out of the room, while the trumpets followed the mellophone SL out.

"Who's left?" Ryan asked. "Hmm…Guard…go with Tyler. Sorry, Tyler," he apologized to the low brass section leader. "Piccolos go with Amy. Battery, you are going to go with me. And Tiffany…I guess you can be Drum Major for the time being, so basically, just hang out with whatever section you want to. And I'm assuming that's going to be with the Pit?"

Tiffany nodded, smiling across the room to Charlie.

"Good," Ryan nodded. "Max, I know you wanted to be apart of this, but I know that you haven't taught your freshmen how to play all the instruments yet, and that's kind of important. And besides, I know that you never get sick of your pities, so you really don't need to switch. And somebody has to keep an eye on Charlie and Tiffany."

Max nodded back, watching Ryan bring the Battery out of the room, keeping a hand on Jake's shoulder as he said something to his youngest brother.

"Ooh, fun!" Sean cheered from atop the stack of chairs. "We get to help you instruct Lily in the art of Pit."

"Off," Max ordered. "Yup. You and Logan get to help me teach her, since it looks like Charlie and Tiffany aren't going to be much help."

He glanced over to the corner of the room, where the couple had already curled up. Tiffany was lying on the floor with her head in Charlie's lap, and he was stroking her cheek, his other hand tightly in hers. Oblivious to the audience that they had, Charlie slowly leaned down to give his love a sweet, passionate kiss.

"Ok, you two, break it up," Max said.

Charlie, still kissing Tiffany, just waved a hand at his friend.

"Blake has a rule about PDA," Logan explained to Lily. "Meaning, he doesn't allow any."

"But he has always been really lineate with Char and Tiffany," Sean reminded the junior.

"Because they've been dating since their freshmen year," Max reminded the boys. "But enough of that. Now, Lily, this is a bass drum…"

_8:40_

_PVHS's Auditorium's Stage_

"Are you enjoying band so far?" Ryan asked his youngest brother as they walked out of the band room.

Being the Drum Major, Ryan had taken it upon himself to be the brother for everybody in band, but he still always paid close attention to his own real siblings. His sister Ryan always worried about. Annie was a…colorful character. The twins were just idiots, so Ryan didn't really spend much time worrying about them. Most of Ryan's attention went to Jake. He was the youngest of the O'Connells, and the shyest. He really wasn't big on defending himself, and Ryan unfortunately knew his band. He knew that people would use Jake's quietness to their advantages. So, Ryan had decided before the season had started that he would look out for his brother, no matter what Jake had to say about the matter.

"It's been fun," Jake responded.

Ryan rolled his eyes. It was impossible to get more then a five-word answer out of Jake Matthew O'Connell. "Care to elaborate?"

Jake shook his head. "Not really."

_8:43_

_PVHS's Main Gym, where the low brass hung out_

"I don't like you guys," Hannah informed the low brass section.

"I like you!" Isaac argued. "You are friends with my sister and brother, so I kind of have to like you…"

"You also aren't a trombone player," Hannah reminded him. "Ok, let me rephrase that. I don't like the trombones, and the trombones don't like the trumpets. Is that better?"

Isaac nodded.

"Nobody is really sure where the trumpet and 'bone rivalry started, but all we know is that it did. I don't expect it to be solved for a while, and neither does Ryan. He is just a prat, so thought it would be funny to stick me with you. But he's not funny. Not at all. Tell him that I said that, ok?" Hannah told Isaac. "Now…since I'm your section leader for the time being, you all have to do what I say. And I say that the trombones have to go sit in the corner and face the wall, not talking to each other, while the rest of the low brass and I have fun."

_8:45_

_The Baseball Field where the Guard Girls threw stuff around_

"First rule: No throwing things," Tyler instructed the Guard Girls. Being the low brass section leader, he was more used to big, buff guys then little, high pitched giggling girls. "Second rule: None of that squeaking you guys do when you laugh. Third rule: No gossiping. Forth rule: No making noise."

"So, what can we do?" a sophomore girl asked.

Tyler thought for a second. "Breathe," he finally said. "But only if you do it quietly."

_9:00_

_PVHS's Band Room_

"Ryan!" Tyler, Hannah, and the rest of the rest of the section leaders bellowed, storming into the band room with their new sections straggling in behind them.

"He isn't here yet," Max answered, not taking his eyes off of Charlie, who was busy amusing the pit by juggling five mallets while standing on one leg with his eyes closed.

The sections leaders glared at Max and just stood around, stomping their feet every few seconds. When Ryan came in with the Drumline, they all pounced on him before he was two feet in the door.

"Ryan! That was pointless!"  
"I have no _idea _how she deals with them - "  
"Absolute waste of half an hour!"  
"Yeah, I'd much rather be marching!"  
"SHUT UP OR HE'LL MAKE US MARCH FOR EVEN LONGER!"  
"What? Anything would be better then being around them!"

"Wow, talk much?" Ryan asked, pushing his way though the crowd of SLs and making his way to the podium to stop the complaining. "Do mine ears deceive me, or is this the first year that the section leaders actually like their own section more then the like the others?"

"Now, we didn't say that!"  
"Yeah, don't go putting words in our mouths!"  
"I TAKE IT BACK!"

Ryan just grinned. "Ok, so, maybe the First Official Section Swap didn't work so well. But hey, you can't be right all the time, eh? Anyways, now it's time for MARCHING! Pit, stay inside, and Max, you guys are on water duty when everybody else inside. I'll send a runner in 15 minutes before we come inside so you can set up; Drumline, you're with Kyle, and listen to him, please; Guard Girls, you are with Amy; wind players, you're coming outside with me. Welcome to Hell."

_9:45_

_PVHS's Band Room_

"What's water duty?" Lily asked Logan as they sat, filling up hundreds of tiny little paper cups full of ice-cold water.

"This," Logan replied, setting another two cups down on the long table they had brought into the band room.

"Obviously," Lily retorted. She was feeling much more at ease with the Pit guys after sitting around for 45 minutes talking about the most random things in a Circ-Sec. "But why are we doing this?"

"Because Ryan seems to think that the band needs water after learning how to march around for an hour," Logan answered. "Personally, I think that we should let them die of dehydration, but that's why I'm not in charge of the band."

"Oh, what a scary thought that is," Sean shuddered, grabbing a cup of water and chugging it, throwing it at Logan when he was done.

"Dude!" Logan protested, throwing it back. "These are for the people in the band that are actually doing work. You haven't done anything all day."

"Sure I have!" Sean countered. "Do you think that looking this good involves no work? But then again, I wouldn't expect you to know."

"Oh, ha, ha," Logan sneered.

"Boys!" Charlie ordered. "Shut up. You just made me hit Max with a mallet."

Logan and Sean both looked over to Max, who was holding a mallet with an amused smile.

"How'd you manage that?" Logan wondered out loud.

"I was juggling," Charlie explained, "but you two distracted me and I didn't catch the mallet, making it fall and his Max on the head."

"Can you show me how?" Lily quietly asked. The only person she wasn't comfortable around yet was Charlie, but that was only because she wasn't sure how to act around an older brother.

"How to hit Max on the head?" Charlie asked surprised. "Sure…it's really easy. You just kind of stand over him and just give him a smack." He demonstrated for Lily, much to the dismay of the Pit SL.

"No, how to juggle!" Lily corrected herself.

"We have like, 3 minutes left," Sean informed everybody.

"So, we don't have time today," Charlie said. "But tomorrow, I'll teach you. I'll bring in some hackey sacks in to teach you with."

"Hackey sacks!" Logan gasped. "Charlie, I love you."

"Logan is obsessed with playing hackey sack," Max explained to Lily. "We're not really sure why…but it's really fun to steal them from him and watch him go crazy trying to get them back."

Logan opened his mouth to argue, but the doors to the room opened, and Isaac and Erik ran though.

"Band is coming!" they announced in unison. "Ry sent us ahead to come in to tell you to get ready."

"Thanks," Max told the twins. "Ok, Pit, man your stations."

As if on cue, the rest of the band came trooping through the doors. Some of the freshmen came in crawling, looking like they were ready to crawl under a rock and die, while the upperclassmen seemed fine. Everybody crowded around the water table, and the five pit people had their hands full with handing out cup after cup after cup. Ryan was the last person to come in, and he was the only person wearing a smile.

After stepping onto the podium with Blake, and telling everybody they had done very well for the first day of marching, and after Ryan yelled out "One more time!" and sent two freshmen girl into hysterics, Blake declared the First Day of Marching Band Camp over, and slowly, everybody left the room to go home and shower, sleep, and whack their heads against the wall for joining band.

_10:15_

_Ryan O'Connell's car_

"My feet hurt," Erik complained.

"Mine too!" Isaac echoed.

"Shut up," Ryan ordered. "You guys are used to marching. You aren't allowed to complain. Jake, on the other hand, does have reason to, so he is the only person that may complain. However, he won't, so I expect this car to be silent until I drop you guys off at home. Complain all you want at home; I'm sure Dad will really enjoy that."

Annie looked over at her older brother from the passenger seat with a knowing smile. Being a junior, she was closest with Ryan then she was with her other brothers. The twins obviously were close, and Jake was often left out. But he was a loner, so he really didn't mind that much. Annie was normally the person Ryan involved in his crazy schemes whenever he was bored. His last one had been on the twins' birthday, and it involved a balloon filled with shaving crème, an alarm set for 3am, and lots and lots of rubber bands.

Yes indeed, life at the O'Connell's was never boring.

_10:32_

_The local IHOP_

"Sorry for being late," Ryan apologized to his fellow bandos who were all jammed into their regular booth.

"No worries," Amy and Max assured him.

Charlie and Tiffany didn't even notice that he had come in, they were to busy smiling at each other. Tyler and Kyle just nodded at him, their mouths too full of food to make any noise. The various other section leaders just nodded or waved.

"So this is it," Ryan said, sliding into the booth next to Tiffany. "The first IHOP band breakfast of the band season. The last first IHOP breakfast. Man. Guys, we are seniors! This is our last year together. We've been together since our freshmen year, and come June, it's all over…no more band parties, no more IHOP breakfasts, no more band competitions, no more three hour Wednesday night concert season Wind Ensemble rehearsals. So, I propose a toast."

Everybody at the table raised their glasses.

"So," Ryan started, holding up Tiffany's glass as she shared Charlie's, "To our Senior year. May it be filled with fun, college acceptance letters, first place band trophies, and good memories."

"To our Senior year!" everybody echoed.

Ryan beamed. "Now that that is over, now it's time for the first 'Annoying Freshmen' stories. Who's first?"


	6. Let It Be

(( Lol, gasp! I'm posting! Sorry for the HUGE delay in this people, I really am...I just had major writer's block, and was at a loss for waht to write, and life just got in the way...sorry! I'll try to update more sooner now, but I can't garuntee anything...once again, sorry for the huge delay, and I hope I didn't lose any readers because of the like, two month's span of time between the last update and this one... ))

_August 17th_

_7:30_

_PVHS's Band Room_

Mia Garver, the Band Librarian, looked down at the band on the podium next to Ryan. "It looks really different from up here," she whispered to him.

The Drum Major nodded back. "I know. But you are up here for a reason, not just to ogle at the view."

"Right," Mia remembered, glancing down at the folder in her hand. "Anyways…ok, I have the music for you guys," she told the band."I should have made enough copies for each part, but if I didn't, section leaders, please send a runner down to me at the copy room with a copy of the music that needs coping. Ok, SLs, come up here and get your music when I call your section."

"And then bring your instruments, chairs, stands, and music to your normal place after everybody has their music," Ryan cut in. "Guard, you guys can leave now. Battery, wait here until the rest of the band is gone."

"Flutes," Mia called out. Tiffany came up to the podium, taking the folder that Mia handed her. "I have all three parts in there," Mia told the older girl. "But I wasn't sure how many copies of each to make, so I just made a bunch. Send a runner down with the extras once you have them all handed out."

"Clarinets," Mia said next, then "Alto saxes! Oh, get the tenors music, too."

Watts nodded as he stood up and got the two folders.

"Mellophones!" came next, followed by "Trumpets!"

When "Low brass!" was called, Tyler was instructed to get all of the low brass music and to send a runner down, since Mia knew that she had messed up the number of copies.

After the rest of the sections had received their music and Max and Mia had a big mix up about the Auxiliary Pit music, Ryan sent all the wind sections off to their sectionals, leaving the Pit, who all went back to their side of the room with the instruments, and Battery, who were still sitting on the floor, looking up at him.

"Mr. Martin will be coming in in about an hour," Ryan told Kyle, "so for the time being…just…I don't know, chill? No, better yet, go teach your drummers how to march, since it is kind of important for you guys to know that…"

Kyle nodded and motioned for his section to follow him out the side band room door, and they begrudgingly did so, the upperclassmen scowling at their drums before putting them on and following Kyle.

"Max," Ryan turned his attention to the last remaining section in the band room. "I trust you can assign Pit parts and such without my help?"

"Yup," Max confirmed, holding up the folder with the various sheets of music in it.

"Sweet," Ryan grinned. "Free time! What ever shall I do with it? Hmm…I could…sleep! Catching up on sleep is always good. Or I could go to all the sections and laugh at their having to work…or, I could —"

"O'Connell!" Blake yelled from his office. "In here. Now."

"—Or I could go have a meeting with Blake," Ryan sighed. "Man. There go my plans."

"Ryan!"

"I'm coming!" Ryan yelled back to the band director. "Sheesh…"

"I heard that!"

Ryan made a face to the pit people before heading into Blake's office, a look of complete doom written on his face.

The Pities just laughed, but Charlie, seeing the look in Lily's face, grinned.

"Don't worry," he told her. "Blake's not that bad. Ryan is just…"

"Crazy?" Sean supplied.

"Interesting?" Logan answered.

"Dramatic?" Max nodded.

"Ryan," Charlie finished. "Nobody ever takes him serious. Except for when he is being in his Drum Major role. I have to give him that. He's the best alto sax player this school has seen for awhile."

"Isn't his goal in life to be a high school band director?" Logan asked.

This time Max answered. "Yup. But enough about Ryan. Time for us! Logan, go get 5 chairs and put them in a circle, Sean, go get about 8stands, Charlie, go uncover all the instruments, and Lily, you and I can stand here while the other guys do all the work. The perks of being the younger sister and section leader, eh?"

"Who's Mr. Martin?" Lily asked, joining Max in the middle of the room, where Logan was busy making a circle out of chairs, Sean not far behind in bringing the stands.

"You know," Charlie told the two younger boys with a chuckle, "you could have just brought the chair and stand racks over here instead of lugging all 5 things across the room."

"Shush," Logan ordered. "Nobody is allowed to comment on my utter lack of smartness except for me and Sean."

"Logan, you are utterly lacking in smartness," Sean said automatically.

"Boys!" Max called out, sitting down in one of the chairs in the circle. "In. Focus. Good. Now, Lily had a question about Mr. Martin. Charlie, you know him best…why don't you answer?"

"Gladly," Charlie smiled at Lily. "Mr. Martin is the Battery dude during Marching Season. He writes the Battery music and helps Kyle teach it to the Line. He basically just makes sure that they know their music, and helps with the drum solo visuals and stuff. He's a cool guy. Pit really doesn't interact with him much, but he's cool."

"We have our own instructor dude," Max continued. "Green, as we call him. He's coming in during Hell Week. Blake likes to have Drumline have their own instructors since typically, the drummers aren't playing their normal instruments during Marching season. I mean, the Battery doesn't play quads and snares and stuff during concert season, and only 2 of the 5 people in Pit are percussionists during concert season. But enough about the teachers…. now, music time."

_8:00_

_PVHS's Copier Room_

Mia was bored. She didn't like being the music librarian, but Blake has told her the year before that because she was a sucky marcher, and an even suckier musician, she needed to do something the help the band in some way if she wanted to stay in band. She didn't really want to, since she hated band, but she didn't hate Maxwell Pahl.

In fact, she didn't hate him at all. She would even go as far as to say that she loved him. Not that she would let him know, of course. Max Pahl, the cute senior guy with the goofy lopsided grin, the person that everybody in the band knew and liked, the person who looked out for everybody else before himself? Yeah, Mia was happy just admiring Max from afar.

But Mia could tell that that would be harder to do this year, with Max's little sister in her clarinet section. Kristy looked identical to Max, with their hair that looked almost black in the light, and their crazy clear blue eyes. The only difference was that Max was tall while Kristy was short, though Max did spend most of his time sitting, since he always said that standing got very tiring to him for his one leg and arms.

Oh, but those arms…Mia could spend hours staring at them; they way they rippled beautifully when Max crutched himself around; the way they could lift anything…. Yes sireebob, Amelia Maria Garver was obsessed, and she planned on doing something about it before the marching season was over.

_9:30_

_PVHS's Band Room_

When Ryan came into the band room after circling the sectionals, helping each group of instruments with their music for the first time, the Pit looked to be in a Circ-Syc. Everybody was sitting in a circle in chairs in the middle of the room, with music stands holding various pieces of music in front of them, and with a few music stands with the top put down flat. Max was holding a woodblock in one hand, an old drumstick in another, while the other four people were looking over their music. A music stand sat in the middle of them all, a few mallets and other drumsticks sitting on it, with a Dr. Beat sitting in the middle.

Ryan pulled up a chair, putting it in between Charlie and Sean, quickly glancing at the two different pieces of music in front of the two boys. Charlie had Mallets 1, Movement 1 in front of him, while Sean had Auxiliary.

"How are you guys doing?" the drum major quietly asked Sean, who quickly glanced up from his stand.

"Max is rhythming Charlie," Sean answered, leaning back in his chair.

That was what Ryan had expected. Charlie, while being the best mallet player in the band, could not read rhythms. Max, on the other hand, was the best rhythm sight-reader. The two of them often paired up, which Ryan thought was good.

"No, see, Charlie, you're rushing the second and third eighth notes," Max was telling Charlie. "It should be 1 e, and a 2, not 1 e anda 2, which is how you are playing it. Hold the 'e' a tiny bit longer then you think you should, and you'll be fine. Ok, now, tap it."

Charlie nodded and grabbed two mallets from the stand in the middle, and holding them upside down, tapped the rhythm that Max was helping him on. When he was done, he looked back up to Max, a hopeful expression on his face.

"Good!" Max praised. "Much better. We'll work on it later, ok?"

"Well, it looks like you have things under control here," Ryan cut in. "Do you have all the parts handed out and stuff?"

"Yeah," Max nodded. "Well, for the first and third movements. We were about to start the third movement."

"Well, that'll have to wait," Ryan said. "We've got ourselves a bit of a situation in the second movement, brass wise."

The band was doing a medley of Beatles songs. The first and third movements featured two songs each, whereas the second featured just Let It Be. However, it was by far the most challenging musically. The melody of the two stanzas of the song was a brass quartet, and quickly went into a heavy drum set and guitar-oriented piece of music. Blake had been trying to figure out how to get Kyle from on the field with his snare in the first movement, to onto the sidelines where he could play his drum set, and then back onto the field with his snare again for the third. Sean had volunteered to play guitar, since that was his true music passion.

"Brass situation?" Max asked. "But they can all play their music."

"Not well together," Ryan responded. "And Tony has having a hard time with his mellophone part, since it is really difficult. So, how good are you with the other brass instruments? I'll take over here, helping these guys with the parts that they already have if you can go help the four before we do a group run through."

"Sure," Max agreed. He gathered his crutches and grinned at Charlie. "One y and a two," he told the boy. "1 e + a 2."

_9:33_

_Some Random Room at PVHS_

Tony groaned and put his mellophone on the ground. Abby followed suit with her trombone, as did Hannah with her trumpet and Tyler with his baritone.

"Well, this sucks," Tyler decided.

The four brass players were all mad at them selves. They could all play their parts perfectly fine by themselves, but as soon as they added other players they just sucked, and they couldn't figure out why.

"What did Ryan said he would do to help us?" Abby asked. She was a quiet junior. By far the best trombone player in the band, but she wasn't a very good leader, so she settled for just being the best player.

"He said he'd go get Max," Hannah answered. "Max is an awesome horn player."

"Rock on horns," Tony said automatically. "But will he be able to help? I mean, he doesn't play the mello or anything else."

"I guess we'll find out now," Tyler said, nodding towards the door, where Max was coming in.

"Hey, guys!" he greeted, smiling at Hannah when she pulled him up a chair. "Ok, so, what do we have here…" Ryan had given him the score to the second movement, and he quickly glanced over it. "Ok, so, the movement starts with mallets and alto saxes playing the opening bars…Trombone, you come in in the pick ups to measure 5…baritone, pickups to measure 9 through 12. Why don't you two play that now?"

Abby and Tyler nodded, and at Max's cue, Abby started playing, with Tyler coming in where he was supposed to. Max quickly stopped them, shaking his head.

"You guys are playing it right, but it's not really blending when the melody switches instruments," Max explained. "Try to blend more. Abby, you can hold that last note out a little bit longer, and Tyler, you can come in a tiny bit earlier, so you two are playing at the same time, so it makes it sound more…flowy. Ok, try it again."

Abby and Tyler played it again, but this time following Max's instructions. Tony and Hannah clapped when they were done, and Max smiled.

"See, that was better already," Max praised. "Now, Hannah and Tony, I take it you two have the same problem when the melody switches to you two in the second verse. Take my advice on what I just told Abby and Tyler, and see if we can get rid of the problem the first time you guys play it. Oh, and Hannah, mind that note jump there. I don't know if you have a problem with it, but just be careful there nonetheless."

Hannah and Tony played, and this time it was Abby and Tyler who clapped.

"Good job," Max smiled. "Ok…the drum set comes in in the middle of your part, Tony, so don't mind it. You and I can work on your part a little more more alone later, if you need it. Abby and Tyler have it lucky, since they only have the mallets and altos playing. Ok, I think you guys have it! I'll have Ryan come back in to listen, but he said it was just that melody switching instruments part you guys had trouble on. Do you want to go over the chorus, where two of you play it together?"

Tony looked over at the other three people before shaking his head. "Nope, I think we've got it. Thanks, Max."

"That's what I'm here for," Max grinned. "Oh, hey, Tony, let me see your music for the other parts."

Tony handed it over. "I'm so excited this show," he commented. "The music is kick ass, and from the little that I've heard of my section play, they sound awesome. I can't wait to see what the finish thing looks like."

"So, how excited is Tiffany for this year's show?" Tyler asked Hannah, Tiffany's best friend.

"Oh, she was thrilled," Hannah smiled. "She and Charlie had their first kiss during freshmen's year Homecoming during Let It Be, and you know how much she loves the Beatles overall. Hey, Max, what about Charlie?"

"Oh, he can't stop grinning," Max answered. "He's been humming Yellow Submarine all day. But yeah, I have a feeling this year is going to be awesome. I mean, it's our senior year - "

"_Your _senior year," Abby interrupted.

"_Our_ senior year," Max continued, "Ryan is an awesome drum major, we finally get senior privileges, and our show is kick ass. What can go wrong?"

(( Man, rock on Beatles. Why them for a show? Well, basically because I was at a loss for what to make their show. My band's show this year was Pirates of the Carribean, which every band in the entire country seemed to do, so I wanted to do something a bit more orginal. And on our band's 5 hour bus ride to NYC for our band trip this year, we had a long discussion about how much teh Beatles rock, because my friend has like...30 Beatles CDs, even though there are only about 15 origanal. And because I have a bunch of Beatles songs stuck in my head...

Oh, and random author's sidenote: When we were in NYC this weekend, we went to go see the Broadway show "Movin' Out" (Billy Joel's songs put to dance) and there was this sax player that was AWESOME. I didn't even pay attention to the dancing..I just sat there and stared at the sax player. He was the best player ever, I swear...man. It was awesome. ))


	7. Band Camp, part 1

So, it's been...what, a year since I last updated? Heh. Sorry bout that. If you weren't around when DMPOA first got started, here's your chance! Meet Ryan, the crazy drum major, his siblings, his friends, and the marching band season that will change all of their young, teenage lives. You have laughter, tears, marching,gatorade, card games, and so much more. Welcome to:

**Drill Master's Position of Attention**

**August 23**

**6:27**

_PVHS's Band Room_

Ryan, from his spot under the piano, groaned. "Blake," he whined. "It's early."

"Yes, yes it is," the band director agreed, smiling at Ryan's feeble attempts to hide. "Now get out of there and help me with the tubas."

The two of them were trying to get ready for the first day of away camp. The rest of the marchers would be arriving in a little more then half an hour, and nothing was ready. The truck hadn't been filled with the large instruments, the rooming assignments hadn't been made yet, and the Drum Major had yet to wake up.

_Snore…snore…_

Blake just grinned again. Opening the tuba case he was dragging across the room, and reminding himself for the 235087th time to get wheels on the cases, he took out the large low instrument and played a note right in Ryan's ear, who awoke with a start. "Get up," he ordered. "Get the other two cases, and then you can get the pit stuff."

Ryan stuck out his tongue, but did as he was told.

Half an hour later, the truck was finally loaded with the tubas, mellophones, trombones, tenor saxes, baritones, all the drumline drums, and all the pit equipment. The rooming assignments were done, and Ryan was finally allowed to sleep for the remaining three minutes until the rest of the band was supposed to come.

But, as it is with all bands everywhere, there is always some overeager band geek who is early for every practice.

In Park View High School's band, there were two, named Erik and Isaac.

When Ryan saw them, he groaned. Again. "Go away," he moaned. "Why are you here? Annie! Make them leave!"

Erik and Isaac, being….well, Erik and Isaac, immediately started running around the band room, throwing things and yelling. Annie and Jake smiled sympathetically at their older brother, who was trying to stuff himself as far under the piano as he could go.

A crutch to the side of his head made him roll back out, though. Ryan glared at Max, who just grinned back at him. "Roomies?" Max asked.

"You know it," Ryan confirmed. "Charlie is with us, too, and Tyler. We're special; we get the only guys four room dorm. Aren't you glad you're friends with the drum major?"

"Friends?" Max scoffed. "I just use you for the perks."

Ryan rolled his eyes at his friend, but grinned when Charlie and Tiffany walked in, hand in hand.

"Oh, Ms. Tiffany," Ryan sang out. "Do you want to know who you are rooming with?"

"Hannah, Annie, and Abby."

"Darn you!" Ryan groaned. "I was going to bribe you with information to make the tweebs shut up."

And indeed, Isaac and Erik were being annoying. Again. Tiffany was the only person they listened to, so Ryan and Annie, and even Jake once or twice, were always going to her to hush the boys up.

"Are they rooming together?" Charlie asked.

Ryan nodded. "On the other side of floor from us. Oh, hey, gotta go do announcements…"

Hopping up on the podium, Ryan beamed down at the band. "Ok, gang. Here's what's going on. The high school we're staying at is about an hour away. The sister of our principal is the vice over there, so we get to be cool and stay there for a week. Your rooms will have anywhere from 5-8 people in them; guys on one side of the school, girls on the other. If you are found purpling, YOU WILL BE PUNISHED."

"Purpling?" a freshmen boy asked his neighbor.

"At the hospital when babies are born, what colors are boys?" Ryan asked with a smile.

"Blue."

"And girls?" he continued.

"Pink."

"What color do you get if you…squash them together?" Ryan grinned, waggling his eyebrows.

"Purple. OH!"

"That's purpling for ya. Anyways, we basically get free reign of the school. The showers in the locker room are ours, so please, shower. Um…you'll get your room assignments when we get there, and Blake wanted me to remind you all that if you wear any inappropriate clothing, you'll have to wear the clown suit and do the chicken dance, so please, be decent. Girls, this means no tank tops, bras at all times, shorts that don't show every curve of your body, stuff like that. Guys…wear belts. Please. I really don't want to see your boxers. No going shirtless. Everybody, wear good marching shoes. Because marching in flip flops is just plain dumb. And we don't want to be dumb, do we? Anyways. You'll find out your room and stuff when we get there….so, everybody! To the buses!"

**8:30**

_On the road_

"Ryan," Isaac whined to his older brother, "I'm bored."

The band had been on the road for a little more than an hour. They had been split into two groups to fit on the buses, with Ryan being in charge of one, and Max and Blake in charge of the other. Luckily for the drum major, he had gotten stuck with both of the twins, who had decided to sit behind him and annoy him the whole time.

"I'm going to throw the two of you out the window the next time you make any noise," Ryan warned the twins. That shut them up.

He had finally managed to fall asleep again, a task he had trying to do the entire bus ride, when something vibrated in his pocket. Jumping up a foot in the air, having been startled, and ignoring the twins' laughter, he answered his cell phone with a sharp, "What!"

"Down, boy," came Max's chuckle from the phone. "Blake wanted me to tell you that we're almost there, so make sure the kids on your bus know the routine. Bring up suitcases first, then instruments to the band room. They'll come back outside to get their ro - "

"Max."

"Yeah?"

"I'm a drum major."

"I know."

"Don't you think that I would know all of this?"

"Oh. Right."

Ryan hung up the phone with a quick shake of his head, and standing up, whistled loudly to wakeup everybody who was sleeping. "Good morning!" he said brightly to the grumpy looking faces yawning at him. "We're almost at school, so, a few small announcements. The suitcases that are stacked under the bus will be taken off by the equipment dudes, so guys, you get off the bus first and unload them, 'kay? Try not to drop any bags on your toes this time. Then, you all will make a large, ugly looking mop of people while Blake and I give you're your rooms. Yes, you'll be sleeping on the floor of classrooms, so get out all of your moans and groans now. Then, you'll bring your bags and stuff to your room, put them down, hurry your little butts back out here and get your instruments and head over to the band room so we can start practice. Got all of that? Good. Go back to bed."

**9:04**

_Forest Lake Middle School's Parking Lot_

"Okay, equipment dudes, do your thing!" Ryan ordered, giving each of the guys who got up and left the bus a big high five. The rest of the bus chattered amongst them for the few minutes of free time they had before the Drum Major ordered them off the bus.

The 50 so band kids huddled together, trying to absorb some heat from each other to battle with the early morning chill. Blake spotted them and smiled to himself. Let them go on thinking the cold was the worst of the weather to come, he thought to himself. They would learn soon enough that the day quickly warmed up.

And quickly warmed up, indeed. By the time Blake and Ryan had finished giving out final instructions and rooming assignments, most of the people were sweating, and it was only half after nine in the morning.

"I don't remember it being this hot last year," Tyler commented to the rest of his group of guys as they made their way to their room. Ryan was lugging both his and Max's suitcase, while Charlie had his suitcase, his backpack full of pit stuff, and Tyler had his suitcase and his case.

"I actually remember it being quite cold for us last year," Max said with a straight face, getting a snort out of Charlie.

It was common knowledge that the band room at the school they were at was always freezing. Because the pit people were in there for so long, they had all brought more sweaters and sweatpants than shorts.

"Ha, ha," Ryan said sarcastically, hitting Max upside the head, causing him to miss a step with his crutch, sending him sprawling on the ground. Tyler, not looking where he was going, tripped over a crutch on the ground, bringing Charlie down with him. Ryan just stood over them, rolling his eyes.

And that was the start of Band Camp.

**10:00**

_Forest Lake Middle School's Band room_

After giving the band kids half an hour off to go to their rooms, meet their chaperones, and get out most of their pent up energy, Blake had finally called a Band meeting. He had access to the loud speaker of the school, and had scared most of the freshmen by laughing evilly into it when he first turned it on.

"So, guys," he said, grinning sheepishly, the thorough yelling at several brave freshmen girls had giving him still fresh in his mind, Blake eyed his band from the podium in the band room.

The band was all sprawled out over the band room. Half of them were in sweats, the other half in pajamas. Blake clicked his tongue at this.

"It's already 97 degrees out there," he warned the students. "You're probably going to want to change into shorts. No, not probably. You will change into shorts before we go out, which will be in about ten minutes. When we first go outside, we'll stretch, led by Amy, and then do fundamental marching for about half an hour. We'll start with this every morning this week, just so we can correct any marching problems we see before setting drill. After that will be sectionals, for more, individual marching, then back inside for music practice. After that, we'll go out and set drill!"

A large cheer went up from where all the seniors were sitting, along with a couple "the last drill we'll ever set!" "I hope we have one that looks like a penis again," and a couple of other random memories of drill setting in the past.

"As you can see," Blake continued, "drill setting is fun."

This time, it was all of the upperclassmen who made comments, most of them consisting of telling the freshmen not to believe him, he was lying.

Blake just grinned. "Actually, setting drill is very tedious. I will admit this. It's a lot of repetition, and 'One more time!'s and whatnot. But, it pays off in the end. So, now, go change and meet me out in the field. With your instruments, yourself, and plenty of water!"

**10:30**

_FLMS's Band Room_

"And now," Max said, comfortably sitting on a pillow and munching on candy, "we do nothing. All day."

"Really?" Lily asked, wide eyed, declining Charlie's offer of sugar on a stick.

Logan and Sean nodded eagerly, both of their mouths filled with some kind of disgusting thing they called food.

"Well, we're supposed to practice," Max admitted. "But you can only hit a bass drum so many times before it just gets annoying. So, we sit, we eat, we sleep, we ponder the meaning of life in our nice, air conditioned room."

Lily grinned. "Cool."

"We'll go out with the rest of the band tomorrow," Charlie informed his 'little sister.' "But just not today. Tomorrow they'll start doing the drill with music, so we have to go out and play the same twelve measures a hundred times. It's really boring, and hot, and annoying. So, make the most of the time we have in here."

"Amen to that," Logan said, raising his huge water bottle full of soda.

"Who's up for Ratscrew?" Sean asked, digging through his bag to find his deck of cards.

Lily made a face at that. "Ratscrew?" she repeated. "Urg. What is that?"

The pit boys all stopped what they were doing to stare at the freshmen girl. "You mean," Charlie finally managed to ask, "You don't know what Egyptian Ratscrew is?"

Lily shook her head.

"Boys," Max said, giving the three other boys a solemn look, "I think it's time."

"For the tournament?" Logan asked eagerly.

"For the tournament," Max agreed. "But first, we have to teach Lily the amazingness that is the card game of Egyptian Ratscrew. You see, Lily, it's like high tech War…"

AN: If you don't know what ERS is, YOU NEED TO GO LEARN. RIGHT NOW. It is the best card game EVER. Well, after Mao. That game is legendary in my school. We have ERS tournaments all the time, and it's fun to watch the best of the best play. We've even gotten our band director into it a few times.

So, last time you heard from DMPOA, I was in pit, but this season, I'm marching for the first time, on mellophone. So, you'll be getting a lot more of marching stuff, and see a lot more of the marching sections from now on, now that I know what marching is all about.


	8. Naptime for the band kids

**Hey, all! Wow, it's been awhile. Sorry about that. These last few months have been crazy. I've bee in the hospital for awhile, getting my appendix taken out, and my own marching band has been taking up a lot of my life. I'm the mellophone section leader, and my section kind of…well, sucks. Horribly.**

**Anyways, I know that's no excuse for not updating, and I'm sorry! Please forgive me and keep reading this story! I have big plans for it. I plan for this story to be pretty long, (it's already at 47 pages, and we're only on the first day of band camp!) going all the way into part of the off season.**

**I don't really plan ahead while writing, because I find it takes out all the fun of it. Why bother to finish a story if you already know how it's going to end? I just kind of put my fingers on the keyboard and see what comes out. That doesn't mean I have no plans, though. The first competition is going to be very, very important, so keep an eye out for that. Other than that, yeah. I just go with it.**

**You might have noticed that I changed the title. That's because the first time I named it, I named it wrong. Drill Masters are the marching shoes, not the thing that we yell. Sorry about that. It's just Drill of Position of Attention now.**

**In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of characters in this story. I try to keep the main plot around the main ones, including Ryan, Max, Charlie and Tiffany, Tyler, Amy, and a few others. If I mention a character that's not a main one, I try to say something about them that tells who they are. If this gets confusing, or you think I'm giving you too many people to remember, tell me!**

**Also, if you have any questions, at all, about anything, feel free to ask! Leave me a review (which I really hope you guys are doing anyways…I love reviews!) or email me at WeezerD16 at cox dot net. hates at signs and email addresses, apparently, so replace the at with the little a thing and the dot with a period.**

**Anyways, I just realized that I've never done a disclaimer for this story!**

_DISCLAIMER: All characters, places, events, etc., belong to me, TicklishMonster. Steal them and I steal your soul. I'm not kidding. I love all the band kids in DPOA, so please don't steal them._

**My friend pointed out to me that half the characters on this story are exactly like people we have in our band. I didn't mean for that to happen. Some of the real life people I met after I started this story, so they're not based on anybody at all. I guess all bands have the same kinds of people in them? Tell me if any of my characters are like real band kids that you know. This is interesting; I want to see if it's just my own whacky band or if it's universal.**

**I've kept you from the story long enough, so, enjoy the next installment of Drill Of Position of Attention!**

* * *

_2:30 _

FLMS's Band Room

"I hate marching," one of the freshmen girls said as the band came into the band room. Her statement was met with a round of applause from everybody else in the band.

"Oh, come on," Ryan said, leading the pack. He was the only one whose shirt wasn't completely soaked through with sweat. "Marching is fun! In fact, we have about 15 minutes until lunch, so. I say we take a little march through the halls! Won't that be fun?"

His statement, however, was met with boos and hisses.

Ryan just grinned. "Band, pa-rade rest," he ordered.

"One, two!" The band responded, moving into parade rest position as one. All of them had an evil glare in their eyes, though.

"Band, atten-tion," Ryan commanded.

"Pride!" Everybody yelled, snapping into attention position.

Ryan nodded and pursued around the band, looking at each of them to make sure they weren't moving. "There are only three things you can do at attention. What are they?"

"Blink. Breathe. Exist!"

Satisfied with his band, Ryan nodded. "At ease. I guess we won't march through the halls yet. 15 minute break until lunch, people!"

This time, his words were met with cheers as the marchers quickly found better ways to spend their much needed break. Ryan, on the other hand, had spotted the pit people in their intense card game, and with an evil grin, bounded his way over to them.

"Tournament?" the Drum Major asked, shoving Logan to the side roughly with his foot to make room so he could join the circle.

"Tournament," Max confirmed, not looking up from the large pile of cards in the center of them. He quickly put down a card from his hand, and all hands rushed forwards to slap it. Ryan's was on the bottom, though.

Charlie sighed and leaned back on his hands before turning to Lily. "Ryan is the best Ratscrewer in band," he told her. "Whenever we play, he wins. Always. We never deal him in when he plays. I could have one card left, and he'll slap in, and end up beating me. My goal this year is to beat him."

"Which is funny," Ryan added, "because I don't have a section to practice with. In fact, the only time I play during marching season is with you guys. And yet, I still beat you. Every time."

Sean, with his tongue stuck out, threw a card at him.

Ryan raised an eyebrow and picked it up. "Oh, hey, thanks. A Jack. That'll do wonders to my hand."

Charlie hit Sean upside the head and Max whacked him with a crutch. "Way to go," the former scolded. "Now he'll defiantly win."

_3:00 _

FLMS's Cafeteria

"How were the freshmen?" Max asked Ryan, sneaking a cookie off the Drum Major's plate when Ryan wasn't looking.

Ryan saw this and swatted Max's hand, taking the cookie and shoving it in his mouth. "Don't ask me. Ask the section leaders," he suggested through a mouthful of cookie, causing crumbs to fall all over his plate.

"Gross," Tiffany said, so Charlie smacked Ryan for making his girlfriend cringe. "Well," she continued loudly, ending the fight that had broken out between her boyfriend and Drum Major, "my freshmen were really sweet. Some of them are good marchers, some of them not so much. But there haven't been any flute player catfights yet, which is good."

"That's more than I can say for Guard," Amy huffed. "Two of the girls decided they hate each other and spent the whole sectional time whacking each other with their poles. I had to put five people between them, and then they resorted to evil glares and name calling. I knew I hated freshmen. And then, two sophomores got into this huge hair pulling fight."

Watts and Tony exchanged a grimace. "We have the biggest snot ever," Watts complained. "He's so…stupid. And annoying. And horrible at life. He thinks he knows everything."

"He told me I was playing the mellophone wrong," Tony continued. "And he's a sax player. I wanted to smack him. Ryan, can I have permission to?"

The Drum Major shook his head sadly. "Sorry, can't give it to you. But you do have my permission to make him run as many cymbal laps as possible."

"Good."

"So, in conclusion, freshmen suck," Amy decided.

Max and Charlie both began to protest this, talking over one another to get their input heard.

"Lily is awesome!" Max finally managed blurted out, biting Charlie's hand which was attempting to cover his mouth.

Glaring, Charlie lowered his hand and gave it to Tiffany to kiss. "She is awesome, though," he agreed. "It sucks that you all got bad freshmen, but I'm glad Maxwell and I got a good one."

Both the pit guys ducked as various food items were thrown in their direction.

Catching a flying cookie in midair, Drumline Section Leader Kyle turned to Ryan. "Your brother is actually really good. Both at playing and marching. I was surprised."

Ryan wasn't. "But has he said more than two words?"

"Nope. Oh, Drumline has lunch clean up duty, right?"

Ryan nodded. "Max, Charlie, that includes Pit. We have half an hour break after lunch, and with all you guys working, it shouldn't take you that long to clean up."

The pit boys made faces at each other. "Why?" they whined in unison

"Well, because more hands are quicker than one," Ryan said seriously, knowing fully well that the Pities had been whining on why they had to clean.

"If that's the case, than you should help us, oh Drum Major Man, to make the cleaning go even more quickly," Max retorted quickly, an innocent smile on his face

Knowing he was caught, Ryan glared. "You and your quick thinking," he grumbled before getting up to throw away both his and Max's trash and getting the broom to help sweep up the cafeteria.

_4:30_

_FLMS's Band Room _

It took awhile for the band to get ready for afternoon music rehearsal. The layout of the band room here was different than the one that most of them were used to, so there was some confusion as to where certain sections sat and what side the first chairs sat on.

There was also the issue of fitting all of Drumline into the room. The pit had their own little corner, filled with their various instruments and chairs and pillow and bags of candy, but the rest of the section had to squeeze into a back row. There wasn't enough room for them to use their drum stands, so they had to stand and use their harnesses while playing, while the rest of the band got to sit. The Battery, of course, loudly voiced their complaints about this; until Ryan pointed out that they had had the choice, way back when, to pick an instrument that wasn't so big and heavy and let you sit.

That shut them up pretty quickly.

But once the band was finally ready, and after Ryan had led them in their warm-ups, Blake took over. During the actual show, Ryan would conduct all three movements of the show, but during practice like this, Blake conducted, and Ryan stood in the back of the room and practiced conducting to Blake's.

"Sit at ease for a few minutes," Blake instructed once he took the podium. There were a few seconds of movement as people put their instruments down and slouched down into the forbidden sitting position. The band director waited until everybody was quiet and looking at him before continuing.

"Our band has always been recognized for its music," Blake reminded his band. "During concert season, we excel for our music alone. During marching season, however…" He trailed off, and some of the upperclassmen cleared their throats and exchanged awkward glances. Blake just nodded. "That's what I thought. You see, during marching season, we kind of…forget our musical talent. The judges kill us on it every time. We focus more on our marching, because it's new, and try to just coast on the music…but not this year. This year, the music will be good. You hear me?"

More awkward glances were exchanged, along with a few snorts of laughter. Finally, Charlie stood up and saluted. "I hear you, sir!"

"Good," Blake said, beaming at the pit person. "Now, sit down and go juggle your mallets or something. Everybody else, pay attention. Our marching can be good. Really good, in fact. We have the talent, and the will to do it, so we will. But I want our music to be better than good. I want everybody to nod when we go to competitions and say 'There goes Park View High School. They make some good music.' Do you think we can do that? Good. Now, let's run part one."

_5:00_

_FLMS's Main Lobby_

The hour long break had started less than two minutes before, and Ryan was already sound asleep, curled up in a ball in the corner of the lobby of the school. His group of friends sat around him, with the rest of the band stretched out along the long hallway, some in the band room, and some in the cafeteria. Most of the band was sleeping, and the few that were awake were too tired to do anything but sit there.

It was, after all, the first day of Hell Week.

Tiffany was sleeping with her head in Charlie's lap, and Charlie was dozing against the wall, his head on Max's shoulder, who, in turn, had his head against his friend's head. Amy was using the sleeping Drum Major's chest as a pillow, with Tyler using her legs to cushion his head.

Robby Molten, the band photographer, took some pictures of the sleeping group. None of them noticed.

About twenty minutes later, the few brave band kids who had gone outside to play soccer or who had been in the gym playing basketball came straggling into the lobby of the school and promptly fell asleep on each other.

Kristy Pahl, Max's sister, had dragged her sleeping bag and pillow out from her classroom turned bedroom, and she had five freshmen, along with herself, shoved into the small blanket to stay warm during their nap.

There was a pillow piracy going on as well. The pillows that were being used by sleeping people were being snatched out from under the slumbering person's head, then being stolen again when the first pillow thief fell asleep.

When Mark Blake woke up from his own nap in the band office half an hour later, he walked right into Band Camp Naptime. The pillow thieves were too tired to try to steal any more pillows. The six girls in Kristy's sleeping bag had somehow managed to find a way to get them all in there comfortably. Ryan was snoring in the corner, Amy's head moving up and down with each breath the Drum Major took. Charlie was stroking Tiffany's hair in his sleep.

Blake was debating with himself for a few seconds on whether he should let his band sleep and skip sectionals or not when he remembered the afternoon practice and how much work was needed to get the band up to the high standards he was holding them to. That decided, the band director happily went back into the band room and got out Tyler's baritone and pulled out the tuning slide, putting his own mouthpiece in.

With a huge grin, Blake skipped back out to the lobby and began to play Flight of the Bumblebee as loud as he could and as out of tune as he could.

Robby was lucky enough to get some hilarious photographs of the band waking up. Ryan jumped up and screamed like a girl, stepping on Tyler's head as he did so. Erik and Isaac rolled off the bench they were sleeping on.

With a wicked smile, Blake grinned at his band. "Good morning," he said brightly. "Sleep well?" He caught the various pillows thrown at him by grumpy band kids. "You guys have five minutes to get your instruments, music, and music stands and get to your sectional rooms. Leaders, if I can see you in the cafeteria for a second?"

After having four more pillows and two stuffed animals thrown at him, Blake finally got all the leaders to stand up and follow him. Once they were all assembled in the cafeteria, and once Ryan was poked enough times to be fully awake, Blake started.

"I know you guys are tired," he said loudly over the yawns of his leaders, "But you guys have to be the example. If you act tired and lazy, the band will be tired and lazy. Be peppy, be energetic, and wake your sections up! Focus just on Part 1 in your music sectionals, and don't worry about music check offs at all. Don't even mention them. I'm giving you guys thirty minutes to practice, and then I want you all back in the band room. Okay. Have at it."

_5:42_

_FLHS's Band Room_

The Pit was sitting in a circle in the middle of their corner, all with looks of complete concentration on. They each had a cup sitting upside down in front of them, and when Max clapped out a rhythm for them, they began.

"Clap, clap, tap tap tap," Lily instructed in rhythm as the Pit played the Cup Game. "Clap, pickup, move."

They continued for two rounds, until Max picked up the cup with the wrong hand. Realizing this, he threw the cup across the room.

"I hate games that are biased towards left handers," he muttered. "Hey, you know what I just realized?"

Knowing that Max couldn't tell them until somebody asked, Charlie sighed. "What did you just realize, Maxwell?"

The section leader grinned at his best friend. "We have practiced at all yet."

"That's not true!" Logan protested. "We rhythmed during camp last week." Sean nodded in agreement.

"Yes," Max nodded, "But that doesn't mean that we can _play_ the music. Okay, let's see…Logan, you have the bass drum. I figure you can hit on beats two and four with no trouble at all, right? Good. Charlie, you have the vibraphone, which is the same, for the most part, as the bells, which is me. So, mallet players, let's go from the beginning, slowly, and see what happens."

_5:44_

_Room 216_

"Baaaaam…dum dum…..ba ba…"

"Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Boo de doop dum ba booo…"

Tyler stopped conducting the low brass section and smiled.

"Ba ba baaaa bah…daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Apparently, Isaac had missed the cutoff, because he was still jamming along on his tuba, oblivious to the fact that his entire section was starting it him. It was only when Tyler shoved his sweater in the bell of the tuba did Isaac stop playing.

"Why is my section so weird?" the section leader demanded, getting only shrugs and strange looks as answers.

With a sigh, Tyler started conducting again. "From measure ten," he said, giving them the down beats. "And try not to suck."

_5:47_

_Room 135_

"Okay, piccolos," Tiffany ordered, "give me a high C."

She was holding a tuner out in front of her, ear plugs firmly in her ears. The worst part about being the section leader for the highest instrument in band was tuning them, she always complained.

"Sharp," Tiffany said, pointing at one girl. "Flat," she told another. "Very sharp."

The rest of their sectional time was tuning their Cs, and playing in tune for the entire movement, not just for one note. Mr. Blake had told Tiffany to do this, though, because he knew, along with most of the band, that there was nothing worse than an out of tune piccolo section.

_5:50_

_FLMS's Auditorium _

"Okay, drumline," Kyle began. "We don't have music yet, in case you haven't noticed. Mr. Martin is still working on writing it. We'll hopefully have it by the end of the week."

"What do we do until then?" Trevor, the ever running cymbal laps guy, asked.

Kyle shrugged. "Chill?"

"It's good being in Battery," Trevor decided with a grin.

_5:55_

_Room 47_

The saxes and mellophone were finished practicing. Because they had two section leaders for the smallest section, even though it was combined, they often got done with sectionals early.

Watts, the alto and tenor sax leader, was busy punishing his annoying freshmen, Steven, while Tony and the mellophones all attempted to do headstands against the wall.

"Put your arms out to the side of you," Watts commanded. Steven obeyed. "Good. Now, leave your arms like that for as long as you can. Once you think you have to put them down, don't. Leave them up there until I tell you to put them down. Your arms will burn like hell. Good. Maybe that will teach you to not mouth off to your section leader?"

"Don't you think that's kind of harsh?" an upside Tony wanted to know. Watts just pushed the other leader over.


End file.
